Re: [Wikimediaau-l] [wmau:members] Re: 2014 Annual Plan: international events ...
Yes, agreed. Though I think there are ways such an event can take place cheaply, and even ways for it to make money (Rego fees but free for members). For example, we're pulling together a little one day conference for a couple of hundred dollars and a heap of in kind: http://tinyurl.com/aaaopenconf and the Sydney Uni Wikimedia in Ed symposium was an excellent event for consolidating and extending education and research practice, it just needed better promotion and documentation - yearly consistency would bring that. If the objective is to build and strengthen community, then I think a National Wikiminia, hosted in a University or Glam with a heap of inkind support, would do that. The conference format coupled with the journal (WAJER) is inviting to academics.. If that is a target group. The Sydney Uni symposium was the first Wikiminia in my mind. On 21/07/2013 12:44 PM, Craig Franklin cfrank...@halonetwork.net wrote: I do like the Wikiminia title! But on conferences and meetups generally, I think we need to look realistically at the value for money when we set up these events. The bare fact of the matter is that setting up an event in Australia is expensive. Accommodation, venues, and most importantly travel costs are very high by international standards. So before we start thinking about having more symposiums, conferences, and other get-togethers, we really need to ask ourselves if that is the most cost effective way to achieve whatever it is that we're looking to do. Are the higher costs justified by the benefit of having face-to-face communication? The answer of course may be yes, but that needs to be quantified before we go and start inviting people. And to my mind the best way to approach it is not to decide to have a real life event, and then fill it with various programmes, but to decide what it is we want to achieve as an organisation, and then hold an event if that is the most sensible way to achieve those goals. Regards, Craig Franklin On 21 July 2013 08:43, Leigh Blackall leighblack...@gmail.com wrote: Agreed. Also, at least one of the International events: Wikimania, offers support for travel already. But targeting funds for the purposes you outline seems a good idea. Speaking of Wikimania... and linking to the WAJER idea, but ignoring the chinwagging perspective, how about ab annual event called Wikiminia? Bringing together datahackers, local real work community groups, and wikiheads, mostly to celebrate, issue awards, dream big, eat and chinwag, but on a local outreach scale. Hosting such a thing is taking another financial incentive open to academics too.. They are recognised andpossibly rewarded for four publishing in WAJER and presenting at Wikiminia. I volunteer to help organise. On 21/07/2013 8:00 AM, Kerry Raymond kerry.raym...@gmail.com wrote: Tony1 has made some comments about the 2014 Annual Plan: ** ** http://www.wikimedia.org.au/wiki/Proposal_talk:2014_Annual_Plan ** ** and I hope we will be hearing more from others! ** ** In regard to his comment about WMAU being represented at international events, it’s probably worth a broader discussion of some of the issues here. ** ** In 2013, we didn't budget any money for participation in international community events, precisely because we (the committee) were doubtful about the benefits from “chinwagging” relative to the costs. However, that has been interpreted by others as not engaging with the broader community, etc. In particular we had a certain amount of criticism for not being represented at the Chapters Conference. ** ** The other issue here is that, despite all the electronic means of communication, people still seem to need face-to-face meetings (and, in particular, the act of eating together) to build trust and goodwill; this is something that I have seen so many times in my years in international standards development (even though almost all the people I worked with were IT people and hence those who one might think most able to work effectively electronically). And trust/goodwill is important when it comes to getting money, so it may be that an international airfare for some carefully-chosen event (meaning who will be there) might be an excellent investment. So that's why it's on the list of possibilities for discussion. ** ** Kerry ** ** ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l
Re: [Wikimediaau-l] [wmau:members] Re: 2014 Annual Plan: international events ...
One of our(WMAU) issues is that we work in isolation for most editors that isolation isnt a big issue but our best results come form when we break that isolation and bring people together. WMAU biggest achievement came when we were able to bring a group together in Canberra in 2009, we changed the way the whole movement worked with GLAMs. Since then we have run successful projects in QLD, NSW WA but they have been locally driven, locally supported. IMHO something that has been tossed around a number of times yet never developed is local groups, local representation within WMAU. I think while looking outside to bring others together is a good idea and will help we need to bring our community together as well. The townhall project suggest last years was one way of doing that, as are other event based happenings Craig attending the launch of Freopedia in doing so it did alot to advance WMAU programs in WA. Doing once off little gestures isnt enough everything needs the followup, at the moment all our planning is around the single song and dance routines we need to look more at planning multiple repeats. Funding a single Wikiminia is nice but the reality is we need to commit to funding such events over an extend time period, we dont have those resources nor are we likely to get them in the short term. On 21 July 2013 10:44, Craig Franklin cfrank...@halonetwork.net wrote: I do like the Wikiminia title! But on conferences and meetups generally, I think we need to look realistically at the value for money when we set up these events. The bare fact of the matter is that setting up an event in Australia is expensive. Accommodation, venues, and most importantly travel costs are very high by international standards. So before we start thinking about having more symposiums, conferences, and other get-togethers, we really need to ask ourselves if that is the most cost effective way to achieve whatever it is that we're looking to do. Are the higher costs justified by the benefit of having face-to-face communication? The answer of course may be yes, but that needs to be quantified before we go and start inviting people. And to my mind the best way to approach it is not to decide to have a real life event, and then fill it with various programmes, but to decide what it is we want to achieve as an organisation, and then hold an event if that is the most sensible way to achieve those goals. Regards, Craig Franklin On 21 July 2013 08:43, Leigh Blackall leighblack...@gmail.com wrote: Agreed. Also, at least one of the International events: Wikimania, offers support for travel already. But targeting funds for the purposes you outline seems a good idea. Speaking of Wikimania... and linking to the WAJER idea, but ignoring the chinwagging perspective, how about ab annual event called Wikiminia? Bringing together datahackers, local real work community groups, and wikiheads, mostly to celebrate, issue awards, dream big, eat and chinwag, but on a local outreach scale. Hosting such a thing is taking another financial incentive open to academics too.. They are recognised andpossibly rewarded for four publishing in WAJER and presenting at Wikiminia. I volunteer to help organise. On 21/07/2013 8:00 AM, Kerry Raymond kerry.raym...@gmail.com wrote: Tony1 has made some comments about the 2014 Annual Plan: ** ** http://www.wikimedia.org.au/wiki/Proposal_talk:2014_Annual_Plan ** ** and I hope we will be hearing more from others! ** ** In regard to his comment about WMAU being represented at international events, it’s probably worth a broader discussion of some of the issues here. ** ** In 2013, we didn't budget any money for participation in international community events, precisely because we (the committee) were doubtful about the benefits from “chinwagging” relative to the costs. However, that has been interpreted by others as not engaging with the broader community, etc. In particular we had a certain amount of criticism for not being represented at the Chapters Conference. ** ** The other issue here is that, despite all the electronic means of communication, people still seem to need face-to-face meetings (and, in particular, the act of eating together) to build trust and goodwill; this is something that I have seen so many times in my years in international standards development (even though almost all the people I worked with were IT people and hence those who one might think most able to work effectively electronically). And trust/goodwill is important when it comes to getting money, so it may be that an international airfare for some carefully-chosen event (meaning who will be there) might be an excellent investment. So that's why it's on the list of possibilities for discussion. ** ** Kerry ** ** ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org
